4chan

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4chan
Content is not officially archived, but some sites take up the effort. However, those very sites are often themselves in danger of collapse.
Content is not officially archived, but some sites take up the effort. However, those very sites are often themselves in danger of collapse.
URL 4chan.org
Status Online!
Archiving status Special case
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

4chan is said to be one of the most significant and "interesting" websites in existence. It has a unique anonymous imageboard posting system, and has a disproportionate influence on English-language internet culture.

The website eventually deletes threads after they reach a bump limit. However, numerous archive sites and wikis have taken up the task of saving threads and images. Numerous others have fallen. We need to keep watch on these fragile, community supported archives, since they can easily collapse without warning.

Scripts

Some scripts you can use to archive 4chan threads yourself.

  • BASC Archiver - Python-based 4chan Thread Archiver for Windows/Mac OS X/Linux. Archives everything: Images, Thumbnails, Thread HTML, JSON, etc.
  • FoolFuuka - Make your own 4chan board archiver website. Fuuka will grab every single thread from 4chan and save it for later public access.

Current Projects

Update: As of 04-08-2014, Moot is retiring the Filesharing search board (/rs/) and the Discussion boards (dis.4chan.org). The Discussion boards are being hidden from the main site, but kept in a read-only state; this could be a good Warrior/Wget side project.

  • dis.4chan.org - 4chan's 2ch-style text boards. All posts from the beginning of the forum's existence are archived, unlike most of 4chan. Therefore, it gives a rare historic snapshot of 4chan's past.
    • New posts can no longer be made, but the existing threads are still available. It is probably prudent to start slurping them down with wget; 4chan generally isn't archived on the Internet Archive.
  • /rs/ - 4chan's filesharing link search board. All filesharing links ever posted to any 4chan board have been recorded here.
    • Not sure if it is still available... Seems to be down with no archives ever made. Could have a few snapshots on the Internet Archive.

Wikis

  • Encyclopedia Dramatica - The quintessential 4chan wiki.
  • Insurgency Wiki - Once, it was almost equal to ED in power and influence. Now, thousands of collapses and failures have reduced it to a broken mess. It would have been gone entirely if it was not for the Bibliotheca Anonoma, which happened to be examining Partyvan.info 2 days before it's collapse.
  • Bibliotheca Anonoma - A wiki designed to save the greatest treasures from around the internet. It strives to provide an index to the archives below to assess their value and display great works to the public. Because what good is a massive mess of information without a guide?
  • Yotsuba Society - A place dedicated to studying the culture of 4chan. Maintains a wiki that strives to restore Wikichan to it's former state. As of 1/16/14, the archival portion of the site is down. The archives have been moved in their entirety to the Stanford Digital Library.
  • Wikichan - The first major 4chan wiki, holding tons of important stories and content. It is the model for many 4chan archive projects to come. The entire wiki collapsed spectacularly several times without recourse, and is the prime example of the problems that occur when a major 4chan archive goes down.
  • LURKMOAR Wiki

Sup/tg/

Suptg
Suptg.png
URL suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com
Status Online!
Archiving status Not saved yet
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

A site created by /tg/ members in 2009, it has a considerable community of its own, providing reviews and RPG materials. sup/tg/ has a uniquely crated archive with full image support. Unlike most other archives listed, moderators conduct routine purges of low-rated threads, a process they refer to as "graveyarding". The only other site that had a similar policy was Chanarchive, but they deleted threads while they were incoming.

4chandata/4chanarchive

4chandata
4chandata.png
URL 4chanarchive.net, formerly 4chandata.org
Status Online!
Archiving status Not saved yet
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

A considerably wide cross-section of 4chan's boards, starting at August 8 2012. Ironically, despite being an imageboard archive, the site itself is unwilling to host images due to the possibility of legal issues surrounding content. While there is content overlap with the Fuuka-based archivers, the site's good to include for the sake of completeness. 4chandata was supplanted by 4chanarchive.net, and both sites appear to be in a precarious hosting situation with archiving coming to a sudden halt on November 20th 2014.

4archive

4archive
4archive.png
URL 4archive.org
Status Online!
Archiving status Not saved yet
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

Another site that saves threads on a unique platform, starting at January 17 2014. This site is notable as it is (currently) the only site archiving /b/. Images are stored separately through Imgur and Imageshack.

Fuuka-based Archivers

Fuuka is a special imageboard backend that allows servers to archive entire boards on 4chan. It would be a good idea to persuade them to upload database dumps to the Internet Archive, just in the very likely case that some disaster befalls them.

Archive.moe

Archive.moe
Archive-moe.png
URL archive.moe
Status Online!
Archiving status Not saved yet
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

Archive.moe is the successor to Archive.Foolz.us, after the scanlation group decided to spin off their 4chan archival branch.

It inherited /a/, /biz/, /c/, /diy/, /gd/, /jp/, /m/, /out/, /po/, /q/, /sci/, /tg/, /tv/ (via 4plebs), /vg/, /vp/, /vr/, and /wsg/ from Foolz. They also assumed the boards formerly archived by The Dark Cave, InstallGentoo (/g/, /diy/, /sci/), and Deniable Plausibility.

Due to space constraints, Archive.moe tends to shed image dumps on a schedule. However, they always provide backups before they do this, so make sure to upload them to the Internet Archive.

Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree Thumbnails Oldest Full Image
/a/ - Animu & Mango 2008-02-03 ??? -> green-oval.net ->easymodo.net -> foolz.us -> archive.moe Restored ???
/biz/ - Business and Finance 2010-10-12 (from birth) foolz.us -> archive.moe Yes All
/c/ - Cute Animu 2012-04-02 (???) -> archive.moe Yes ???
/diy/ - Do It Yourself 2011-10-23 installgentoo.net -> foolz.us -> archive.moe Yes ???
/g/ - Technology 2010-02-07 green-oval.net -> installgentoo.net -> rbt.asia & archive.moe Not after 2014 (try rbt.asia) No
/gd/ - Graphic Design 2014-07-12 foolz.us -> archive.moe Lost before 2014 ???
/h/ Hentai 2012-01-25 foolz.us -> archive.moe Lost before 2014 ???
/i/ - Oekaki 2011-11-05 foolz.us -> archive.moe Yes All
/int/ - International 2013-01-08 foolz.us -> archive.moe Partially Restored ???
/jp/ - Otaku Culture 2008-02-20 (from birth) ??? ->easymodo.net -> foolz.us -> archive.moe Yes ???
/k/ - Weapons 2012-07-13 heinessen.com -> foolz.us (???) -> archive.moe Yes ???
/m/ - Mecha 2009-03-27 easymodo.net -> foolz.us -> archive.moe Lost, Partially Restored ???
/mlp/ - Pony 2012-03-27 (from birth) heinessen.com -> foolz.us (???) -> archive.moe Yes Internet Archive
/out/ - Outdoors 2012-03-18 (from birth) (???) -> foolz.us (???) -> archive.moe Yes ???
/po/ - Papercraft and Origami 2010-10-20 (???) -> foolz.us (???) -> archive.moe Yes All
/q/ - 4chan Feedback 2010-10-20 (from birth) foolz.us (board closed 2013-09-18) -> archive.moe Lost, Partially Restored ???
/qa/ - (Formerly) Questions and Answers 2010-10-20 (from birth) archive.moe Partial? Partial
/r9k/ - ROBOT 9001 2012-06-02 (???) -> archive.moe Yes ???
/s4s/ - Shit 4chan Says 2013-10-01 (???) -> archive.moe Yes All
/sci/ - Science 2013-10-01 green-oval.net + gentoomen -> installgentoo.net -> archive.moe Yes ???
/tg/ - Traditional Games 2010-02-23 easymodo.net -> foolz.us -> archive.moe Yes ???
/tv/ - Television and Film 2010-02-10 green-oval.net + gentoomen -> foolz.us -> archive.moe Lost, Partially Restored ???
/u/ - Yuri 2011-06-04 foolz.us -> archive.moe Lost before 2014 ???
/v/ - Video Games 2012-02-12 foolz.us -> archive.moe Lost before 2014 Partial
/vg/ - Video Games Generals 2012-02-16 (from birth) foolz.us -> archive.moe Lost before 2014
/vp/ - Pokemon 2013-03-13 (???) -> archive.moe Yes ???
/vr/ - Retro Games 2013-03-18 (from birth) (???) -> archive.moe Yes
/wsg/ - Worksafe GIF 2012-06-05 (from birth) (???) -> archive.moe Yes ???

rbt.asia/rebeccablacktech.com

Status: Online Saves Images?: Yes

A Fuuka archiver for /con/, /cgl/, /g/, /mu/ and /w/. /soc/ moved to fgts.

Board Date of Oldest Thread
/qa/ Q & A 2015-01-23 (from birth)

fuuka.warosu.org

Status: Online Saves Images?: Partially (all boards except /g/)

A Fuuka archiver for /3/, /cgl/, /ck/, /fa/, /ic/, /jp/, /lit/, /q/, /tg/, and /vr/.

archive.4plebs.org

Status: Online Saves Images?: Yes

A Fuuka archiver for /hr/, /o/, /pol/, /s4s/, /tg/, /trv/, /tv/, and /x/.

fgts.jp

Status: Online Saves Images?: Yes

A Fuuka archiver for /asp/, /b/, /cm/, /h/, /hc/, /hm/, /n/, /p/, /qa/, /r/, /s/, /soc/, and /y/. All except /asp/, /cm/, /n/, /p/ and /qa/ are NSFW.

Board Date of Oldest Thread
/asp/ - Alternative Sports 2013-12-02
/b/ - Random[fgts-b 1] 2015-01-04
/cm/ - Cute/Male 2013-01-29
/h/ - Hentai 2013-02-20
/hc/ - Hardcore 2013-03-05
/hm/ - Handsome Men 2013-08-12
/n/ - Transportation 2013-05-23
/p/ - Photography 2014-03-29
/qa/ - Question & Answer 2015-01-23 (from birth)
/r/ - Request 2014-02-02
/soc/ - Cams & Meetups 2013-12-26
/y/ - Yaoi 2012-12-17

archive.loveisover.me

Status: Online Saves Images?: Yes

A Fuuka archiver for /d/, and /i/. NSFW to the core. Has assumed responsibility of boards formerly curated by archive.nyafuu.org /c/, /e/, /u/, /w/, /wg/, as of November 2014, and took in the archive.mawa.re /t/ archive (which starts from January 12, 2014)

imcute.yt

Status: Online Saves Images?:Yes

A Fuuka archiver that's resumed archiving all boards originally covered by Heinessen (/an/, /fit/, /gif/, /int/, /jp/, /mlp/, /out/, /r9k/, /sp/, /toy/) except /k/ and /x/.

Board Date of Oldest Thread
/an/ - Animals & Nature 2014-10-15
/fit/ - Fitness 2010-10-12
/gif/ - Adult GIF 2014-08-09
/int/ - International 2014-10-18
/mlp/ - Ponies 2012-08-08
/out/ - Outdoor 2014-07-12 (from birth)
/qa/ Q & A 2015-01-23 (from birth)
/r9k/ - ROBOT9000 2014-11-10
/toy/ - Toys 2014-07-12

Boards not currently archived via Fuuka

  • /j/ - Janitor Team (staff board; not publicly acknowledged)
  • /sp/ - Sports (due to a troublesome CP spammer during the April Uprising)

List of Fuuka Archivers by board

Board Moe 4plebs Archive Love is Over Rebecca Black Tech warosu fgts imcute Total
/3/ - 3DCG No No No No Yes No No 1
/a/ - Anime & Manga Yes No No No No No No 1
/adv/ - Advice No Yes No No No No No 1
/an/ - Animals & Nature No No No No No No Yes 1
/asp/ - Alternative Sports No No No No No Yes No 1
/b/ - Random No No No No No Yes No 1
/biz/ - Business & Finance Yes No No No Yes No No 1
/c/ - Anime/Cute Yes No Yes No No No No 1
/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL No No No Yes Yes No No 2
/ck/ - Food & Cooking No No No No Yes No No 1
/cm/ - Cute/Male No No No No No Yes No 1
/co/ - Comics & Cartoons Yes No No No No No No 1
/con/ - Conventions No No No Yes No No No 1
/d/ - Hentai/Alternative No No Yes No No No No 1
/diy/ - Do-It-Yourself Yes No No No Yes No No 2
/e/ - Ecchi No No Yes No No No No 1
/f/ - Flash No Yes No No No No No 1
/fa/ - Fashion No No No No Yes No No 1
/fit/ - Fitness No No No No No No Yes 1
/g/ - Technology No No No Yes Yes No No 2
/gd/ - Graphic Design Yes No No No No No No 1
/gif/ - Adult GIF No No No No No No Yes 1
/h/ - Hentai Yes No No No No Yes No 2
/hc/ - Hardcore No No No No No Yes No 1
/hm/ - Handsome Men No No No No No Yes No 1
/hr/ - High Resolution No Yes No No No No No 1
/i/ - Oekaki Yes No Yes No No No No 1
/ic/ - Artwork/Critique No No No No Yes No No 1
/int/ - International Yes No No No No No Yes 2
/jp/ - Otaku Culture Yes No No No Yes No No 2
/k/ - Weapons Yes No No No No No No 1
/lgbt/ - LGBT No No Yes No No No No 1
/lit/ - Literature No No No No Yes No No 1
/m/ - Mecha Yes No No No No No No 1
/mlp/ - Pony Yes No No No No No Yes 2
/mu/ - Music No No No Yes No No No 1
/n/ - Transportation No No No No No Yes No 1
/o/ - Auto No Yes No No No No No 1
/out/ - Outdoors Yes No No No No No Yes 2
/p/ - Photography No No No No No Yes No 1
/po/ - Papercraft & Origami Yes No No No No No No 1
/pol/ - Politically Incorrect No Yes No No No No No 1
/q/ - 4chan Feedback Yes No No No No No No 1
/qa/ - Question & Answer Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes 4
/r/ - Request No No No No No Yes No 1
/r9k/ - ROBOT9001 Yes No No No No No Yes 2
/s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women No No No No No Yes No 1
/s4s/ - Shit 4chan Says Yes Yes No No No No No 2
/sci/ - Science & Math Yes No No No Yes No No 2
/soc/ - Cams & Meetups No No No No No Yes No 1
/sp/ - Sports No No No No No No No 0
/t/ - Torrents No No Yes No No No No 1
/tg/ - Traditional Games Yes Yes No No Yes No No 3
/toy/ - Toys No No No No No No Yes 1
/trv/ - Travel No Yes No No No No No 1
/tv/ - Television & Film Yes Yes No No No No No 2
/u/ - Yuri Yes No Yes No No No No 1
/v/ - Video Games Yes No No No No No No 1
/vg/ - Video Game Generals Yes No No No No No No 1
/vp/ - Pokémon Yes No No No No No No 1
/vr/ - Retro Games Yes No No No Yes No No 2
/w/ - Anime/Wallpapers No No Yes Yes No No No 2
/wg/ - Wallpapers/General No No Yes No No No No 1
/wsg/ - Worksafe GIF Yes No No No No No No 1
/x/ - Paranormal No Yes No No No No No 1
/y/ - Yaoi No No No No No Yes No 1

Closed Archives

4chan Archives that have shut down, but either have dumps available or transferred their archives to other sites.

installgentoo.net

installgentoo.net
File:Installgentoo.png
URL archive.installgentoo.net
Status Offline
Archiving status Inherited by rbt.asia and Archive.moe
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

Status: Transferred Saves Images?: Partially (all boards except /mlp/ and /x/)

Archived /diy/, /g/, and /sci/ throughout it's lifetime. These boards were inherited from Green-Oval and Gentoomen.

It also archived /pol/ and /k/ for a while, but those archives were transferred to other sites (I'm assuming Heinnessen?)

It shut down around July 2014, but /diy/, /g/, and /sci/ were transferred safely to both RebeccaBlackTech/rbt.asia and Archive.moe.

archive.mawa.re

Status: Transferred Archived?: Yes (by loveisover.me)

Start Date: ??? End Date: (around Nov. 2013)

Archived /t/. It was shut down by it's owner, but the backups were transferred to loveisover.me.

archive.nyafuu.org

Status: Offline Saves Images?: No

A Fuuka archiver for /c/, /e/, /w/, and /wg/, provides full image archiving. /e/ is NSFW.

It shut down sometime around November 2014, and all the boards were inherited by archive.loveisover.me.

archive.heinessen.com

Status: Archived Saves Images?: Partially (all boards except /mlp/ and /x/)

Archived /an/, /fit/, /k/, /mlp/, /r9k/, /toy/, /x/. Also used the alternate domains archive.maidlab.jp and xfiles.to .

Closed on November 2014 due to personal reasons, but the /r9k/, /mlp/, and /k/ archives were made public.

imcute.yt inherits all the boards that Heinessen archives, except for /k/ and /x/, and continues where it left off. 4plebs.net (may have) inherited it's /x/ archive, it dates back to 2013. Archive.moe inherited Heinessen /k/, /mlp/ archive. They also made public Heinessen's 282GB archive of all full-size images from /mlp/, which was then uploaded to the Internet Archive.

Foolz Archive

Foolz Archive
Aprilfoolz.png
URL archive.foolz.us
Status Offline
Archiving status Partial
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

The predecessor to Archive.moe. Foolz was originally a scanlation team that heavily depended on Easymodo's /a/ archives to coordinate, and took over administration when Easymodo shut down. The developers created, (and are still maintaining) **FoolFuuka**, a significantly improved version of the original Fuuka Archiver. It even allowed anons to comment on threads long after they closed.

On August 14, 2014, Foolz.us announced that the service would shut down. The entire archive was spun off and transferred to the newly-built Archive.moe.

Unfortunately, a mishap occurred where most of the thumbnails on Foolz's archived boards were lost forever: By the time the staff noticed that the transfer failed, foolz.net was already deleted. /a/ was fully recovered with earlier dumps of green-oval.net and easymodo, but other boards weren't as lucky.

Thanks to the magic of md5sums, however, the thumbnails of the other boards can be restored once the original image is reuploaded to 4chan. But obviously, not everything can come back.

Easymodo

green-oval.net

The very first attestable 4chan Fuuka Archiver.

Anonymous of Russia

Some curious post-thread discussion in the earliest archived /a/ thread from February 2008, attests that there was a site that archived /a/ all the way to December 2007 (instead of just 2008). The anon who did this is known as Anonymous of Russia (AoRF), who is presumed to be the one who invented Fuuka.

However, he got subnet banned and failed to upload backups of those three months. What a shame.

Lost Archives

WorldAthleticProject

Status: Offline Archived?: No

Start Date: ??? End Date: (around Nov. 2013)

WorldAthleticProject was an archiver for the boards /cm/, /s/, /con/, /e/, /h/, /hc/, /soc/, /s4s/, /d/, /pol/, /adv/, /trv/, /lgbt/, /r/, /u/, and /y/.

This archiver also attempted to make a Fuuka vertabrim archive of /b/. Unfortunately, given that /b/tards are a feisty bunch and post CP from time to time (and deletions are difficult to transfer to the archiver), despite having a decent report system, the owner probably wiped all data in a panic when the partyvan came to his door.

Apparently reports aren't enough, you need to log users as well, as fgts,jp will tell you in their archive.

This is the most significant loss of data since the Chanarchive. We need to catalog what was lost (check archival start dates), and possibly recover some bits via Internet Archeology on the Wayback Machine.

Foolzashit

Status: Offline (around Nov. 2013)

Foolzashit was an archiver for /s4s/ (since it's inception).

Unfortunately, it was lost in it's entirety and backups were not made, so all /s4s/ posts predating Nov. 2013 (when 4plebs.org began archiving) are lost.

Chanarchive

Chanarchive (formerly 4chanarchive)
Chanarchive.png
URL Chanarchive.org, formerly 4chanarchive.org
Status Offline
Archiving status Not saved yet
Archiving type Unknown
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)

4chan's primary archive site. Since 2006, significant 4chan threads have been archived on the 4chanarchive, creating a database of over 500GBs.

On 10/3/2012, Chanarchive without warning, temporarily shut down (almost permanently though.) On a 4chan thread, the owner stated that the site was banned from paypal and had their funds frozen, making it impossible to pay it's massive expenses. However, the operators of Encyclopedia Dramatica stepped in, and offered to host chanarchive.org, which was accepted by the site's creator/then-owner, "Capsized."

The site is still online as of 2/26/13, but no backups have been made as of yet. As of 1/16/14 the site is down and ED has given no indication to it returning. Internet Archive has intermittent captures of the site.

Zaiger, one former mod, stated that a hard drive containing parts of the site got corrupted, and was irreparable. The Chanarchive Team was thus unable to restore the site, or even a backup.

The Bibliotheca Anonoma is attempting to resurrect some portions of the site through Internet Archeology, by sifting through the Wayback Machine's many snapshots of 4chanarchive/Chanarchive. Not everything will be saved, and images are mostly lost, but a significant portion of the threads can at least be read.